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Saturday, October 27, 2012

everyone is perky and attentive on the morning of the launch of our fall 13 books

Apologies for the hiatus. I've been crazed preparing for and then making presentations at the sales conference for the launch of our Fall 2013 titles. These are books I'm super excited about working on so it was fun to discuss them with the sales team (they have some nice shoes!). Now that it's over, I'm tired. And I need to sleep. But first, here's what I've been seeing throughout the week:Interior design:I'm kind of addicted to West Elm as it is, and now with the opening of West Elm Market, their new shop of kitchen tools (they're calling it a community store and general market), I can tell I'll be spending way too much in there this fall.Are you as excited about the new Nate Berkus book as I am? Just in case you haven't purchased your copy yet, head to Apartment 34 before Sunday to win a signed copy of his book along with an incredible looking lacquered box from his Target collection.Art for your home feels like an incredibly tough process, not to mention expensive. Jenny at Little Green Notebook takes some of the stress away with this giveaway from gorgeous online art store, 20x200. Just find your favorites on 20x200, go back to LGN and tell Jenny, and voila! You'll be entered to win one $200 gift certificate and five $20 gift certificates. Fashion/style:Kelly of The Glamourai and Jamie Beck are visiting Paris and I'm swooning over the images of their adventures in the city of lights.Win $100 to spend at Shopbop through The Zhush.My kind mother, who is staying with me for a few days while T is traveling in Europe for work, just bought me a pair of the cutest skinny red jeans with zippers from the Gap. I'm in love with them. But just as I was trying to figure out what to wear with them, I found this super helpful post from Ramshackle Glam on how to style your red jean outfit. Yippeee.Food:I was pretty excited to meet Yvette Van Boven in our offices last week. She's kind of a superstar in the foodie world and her cookbooks are simply gorgeous. Check out this recipe for a luxurious gingerbread with white chocolate and dates on Design Sponge.Even though Molly of Orangette acknowledges that the world doesn't need another banana baked anything she still manages to entice with a recipe for banana cereal muffins from the always amazing Kim Boyce and her book, Good to the Grain.People, I'm declaring it right here and now, I LOVE bread pudding! I love it cold, I love it hot. I love it to the moon and back. And then some. Now that I've told you that, I'm pointing you towards this scrumptious recipe for maple pumpkin bourbon bread pudding from the always fun Eva at Adventures in Cooking.Maria and Josh of Two Peas & Their Pod recently traveled to Oregon and have come back with a sweet gift box giveaway from Harry & David. It has pears and lots of blue cheese, and well, that's really you need to know.Ok, now back to tracking this hurricane barreling its way towards NYC. Baking some tea bread, stocking up on milk and eggs, and hunkering down for a windy, rainy day on Monday.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I've been sleeping, well, not much these past few weeks. Not sure why, but I suddenly can't seem to motivate myself to go to bed any time before 1am. There's just too much INTERNET out there, people!

And I can't let it all go to waste while I sleep!Interior design:

Get some ideas for fall decorating over on the beautiful french farmhouse interior site, Dreamy Whites. I'm digging the use of Autumnal branches around the home (and those blue French canning bottles, ahhh!)

Win $100 towards chic office supply store Pippin from Erin at House of Turquoise. I'd use it towards a colorful desk chair, or perhaps some pink office supplies in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I've been a fan of Swedish designer Lotta Jansdotter for years. See her beautiful bright Brooklyn office at Decor8 today. Also, I didn't realize she had a line with Fishs Eddy. I need to pick some of those pieces up right away.

Fashion/style:

Comment on Bleubird to win $250 to spend on so many awesome baby things at Tottini.

Ok, I hope no family readers are paying attention cause I totally want to make this amazing memory card game with my own photographs, from Pinhole Press. I used them for calendars last year and I was very impressed with the quality of the paper and printing. Found via Cup of Jo today.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Last Saturday's batch of lemon poppy seed pancakes

I have this Saturday morning tradition where I rise earlier than a few members of my household and tune Pandora to my Irish music channel. The rooms of my apartment swell and fill with the sounds of the tin whistle, accordion, and bodhran while I flip pancakes and dance/shuffle around in my pajamas, my bare feet tapping out rhythms on our cold kitchen tiles. Slowly but surely, I'm joined by others, blinking their eyes owlishly. The music is usually too fast for their sleepy minds and it's quickly replaced by something more sedate, like NPR, but for a few precious minutes on a weekend morning, the apartment and the sounds in it are mine.

Just a few posts before we head into the weekend.

Food:

I promise to stop posting apple recipes soon, seriously. Can I do just one more? How about this utterly tempting apple mosaic tart with salted caramel from Smitten Kitchen? Yep, that works for me.

I love sugar, that's a fact. But, I don't think even I could eat too many of these dark chocolate and coconut popovers posted on The Kitchn today. If I find the plain popover too heavy, perhaps this would be way over the top. Or perhaps it might be heaven.

I wrote a post for the Abrams Books blog reviewing malted milk chocolate pots de creme from the new Baked Elements book. Check it out here.

You better believe I'm entering this giveaway from Anthology Magazine to celebrate their 2 year anniversary. You could win issues no.1-8 (including the hard-to-find issues no.1 and 2!) All you have to do is follow them on instagram and take a photo of your favorite place to curl up with your copy of Anthology magazine.

Looking for something to dream about this weekend? Take a look at this post on This is Glamorous about the many extraordinary castles in Germany. This is part of their "take me away" series and the photos alone have me booking tickets to Germany pronto.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

As the weather gets cooler, I am able to turn on the oven again. Oh, how I missed it. I find comfort in dicing and roasting vegetables, sweet potato, carrots, and onions, piling them in neat piles and tossing them in olive oil and salt and roasting until they are bursting with sweetness. This is my go-to way to serve vegetables and often the way I use up supplies that are wilting fast.

I love the girly lifestyle site, Hello Giggles and the team behind it (which includes Zooey Deschanel). The Coveteur features the home of another one of the founders, Sophia Rossi. After seeing the images of her beautiful home it's clear that the cute, vintage style of Hello Giggles owes its inspiration in part to Sophia.

Interior design:

Despite the fact that we just bought an oriental carpet for under our dining table, I'm still always on the lookout for other rugs. So I appreciated this pretty and affordable rug round up by a new blog find of mine, Design Darling. I'm thinking of a pretty chevron number for the bedroom.

Gahhh, drooling over these images of a Scandinavian apartment on Emmas Designblogg today. Instead of the usual graphic black and white you so often see, this is a refreshing change with warm brown tones and pops of white.

I was super excited to see that Lonny has launched an iPad app. You can see past issues and even directly link to websites to purchase the items you see in the magazine pages. Awesome!

Check out these inspiring images of kitchens on My Notting Hill today. Get this, they have libraries in them! That's pretty much my idea of heaven--I'd probably never leave the room!

I'm adding billie magazine to my list of online magazines to read. The new shelter and fashion mag is coming out in November and is run by former Domino editor, Lili Diallo. Read more about it on The Editor at Large.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Isn't it amazing how life can change in the blink of an eye? One minute you're cruising along, and the next you're thrown for a loop - reeling with new knowledge and unsure of your footing. When life hits you with unexpected events, really the only thing to do is to fall back on comfort. See those mugs up there? They are filled with the most incredible creamy chocolate-y malted goodness. Milk chocolate pots de creme from the newest book in the Baked franchise; Baked Elements. Heaven in a cup.

Interior design:

It's kind of amazing what some new shiny knobs can do for a piece of furniture. Check out Jess Lively's new take on an IKEA classic dresser.

Young House Love takes the hassle out of holiday card buying and has a giveaway for $400 to spend at Tiny Cards to purchase their gorgeous custom holiday cards as well as some custom address labels.

I'm looking forward to curling up with issue no. 9 of Anthology Magazine and a cup of tea very soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this preview.

Food:

Do you read The New Potato? A recent find for me, it's run by two sisters who are clearly passionate about discovering new culinary talent and showcasing amazing restaurants in NYC. Today's post lets you shop a stylish collection curated by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan of Apartment Therapy. I'm drooling over those pretty little soup bowls.

Cauliflower completes me. One of my favorite recipes in the Autumn is a cauliflower cheese soup from Moosewood Kitchen. It's so satisfying. Naturally Ella has a recipe for a roasted garlic and cheddar cauliflower gratin that looks just as good.

If you're as active on instagram as I am then you'll easily be able to participate in this contest being run by Anne Sage at the wonderful San Francisco-based blog, The City Sage. You could win a $250 gift card to Target and all you have to do is tag @thecitysage in your instagram posts as you walk around the streets of your town.

Do you love Erin of Apartment 34's style as much as I do? Well then you'll be excited to see that she's pairing down her wardrobe and selling off some of her excess fall clothes on Threadflip! Threadflip lets you sell your clothing straight from your closet. I'd check out her collection if I were you.

Here's Central Park from this weekend - no Autumn colors yet. See you tomorrow!

Friday, October 12, 2012

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I'm planning on putting some of those apples we picked last weekend to good use and making a galette or two.

Interior design:

Holly Becker of Decor8 has teamed up with her publisher to put together a box of her very favorite items for your home and they are giving it away! Head to Decor8 and then on to the Chronicle Books site to participate. From a Jonathan Adler vase to a gorgeous Voluspa candle, I'm dying to win this one.

Fashion/style:

Am I the last one in the world to start reading the JCrew blog, 770 Behind the Line? Oh well, I'm reading it now and loving the stylinga and outfit inspirations they put together.

Most of us don't live in London so won't be able to check out this incredible Chanel show about Coco Chanel's iconic little black jacket that just opened in London's Saatchi Gallery. But The Londoner got a sneak peek and features it on her blog. She also has a giveaway for one of the Chanel prints that you get if you attend the show! I would frame one of these for my bedroom.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The mornings are chilly now and we are greeted by a blast of cold air upon leaving our building to walk the few blocks to the subway. October moves quickly and I'm looking forward to walking down my favorite blocks near Central Park to see the stately brownstones all decorated for Halloween.

I'm loving this incredibly colorful Finnish apartment over on This Little Street. Found by Audrey for her "Live Here, Eat This" series, she pairs the home with a gingered watermelon juice so you can sip in style.

If you're in the market for a new sofa then check out this roundup of relatively affordable JCPenney couches from Camila at Effortless Style. I'm really digging that Oasis Darrin sofa in a deep grey.

Food:

I like to make pancakes every saturday or sunday morning. Last weekend I made lemon poppy seed pancakes that kind of blew me away. This weekend I might try out these whole wheat apple cinnamon pancakes with cinnamon syrup from the lovely Maria and Josh at Two Peas and Their Pod.

You have until October 15th to enter this giveaway from Aran at Cannelle et Vanille for an assorted mix of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flours, but I'd suggest heading over there straight away because she also provides recipes for some apple scones and apple and cardamom brown butter cakes.

Adrianna at A Cozy Kitchen is celebrating her birthday (happy birthday, Adrianna!) and like the nice person she is, she's hosting a giveaway for us! Enter to win a cute purse, the newly released Spoon, Fork Bacon book, and coloring pencils fashioned like twigs.

I can't help it, I'm totally into curried soup at the moment. Naturally Ella has a tasty looking recipe for curried pumpkin and coconut soup that sounds perfect for a chilly Sunday afternoon. I'd serve it with some buttered Irish brown bread.

Oh what I would give to attend this food photography and styling workshop being run by Bea at La Tartine Gourmande in County Clare next autumn!

Fashion/style:

Gabrielle of Design Mom is in Ethiopia at the moment as part of The ONE Campaign, touring schools and helping find ways to combat starvation and malnutrition. Her dispatches are incredibly interesting and showcase this gorgeous but ravaged land. Here she tours some schools and visits their library and here you get to see how beautiful the land is. Also enter to win $175 to spend on a cool backpack, lunch bag or diaper bag from So Young.

Gourmande in the Kitchen is hosting a giveaway of a super stylish ONA Bowery camera bag. Simply head over to leave a comment to be entered to win.

Ok I'm off to watch the VP debate on my DVR. I hear there is lots of snide giggling by both!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

There is going to be a bumper crop of links today, my friends. A few days break from the blog led to thousands (yeah, thousands) of posts in my reader. Wooh, I'm a little overwhelmed. But I think I managed to grab some of the best for you.

On an unrelated note, Autumn is here folks, stop fighting it. Give in, and let it take over. Let in the pumpkin and the apples and the hot chocolate and the leaves. Oooh and the boots, the boots, sigh. I've got my eye on quite a few pairs this year. Like these (note: you have 40% off if you shop Lands' End before midnight!) or these from Forever 21.

Food:

I love baking with olive oil. I fainted with sheer joy after making Smitten Kitchen's blood orange olive oil cake a few years ago. I'm adding this recipe for these beautiful pistachio olive oil cakes from White on Rice Couple to my list.

Yes, yes, yes to roast chicken in the Autumn! Actually it's probably the only way I'll eat chicken. There is some serious awesomeness going on at Adventures in Cooking with this delicious looking roast chicken with yams, oranges, and Blue Moon! Plus you can enter to win the super cute porcelain poultry roaster that Eva uses.

You probably don't have a great chance of winning this competition, when I entered there were already 4,500 entries! But, nevertheless, head over to Bake at 350 to congratulate Bridget on her new book, Decorating Cookies, AND enter a giveaway for a turquoise stand mixer! I can't even tell you how many competitions I've entered for a stand mixer and I NEVER win. Maybe this will be the one?

Pizza and I are in a rut. Stuck in a rut together. Same old mozzarella and tomato with a sprinkling of basil. It just doesn't do it for me anymore. So here is an alternative from The Kitchn today. Prosciutto and arugula? Yes, please.

Head to Averie Cooks to win a copy of Jenna Weber's recently published White Jacket Required and she shares a recipe for pumpkin whoopie pies from the book too!

Soup completes me in the Autumn. Well, soup and chocolate. But I'm just here to talk about soup. I have recently tasted curried soup. And it rocked my world. Here's a recipe for curried sweet potato, lentil, and coconut soup from Ronda at All the Best.

Interior design:

It's a little bit crazy how excited I am about the new Zara Home collection (just launched for the US today). Ez at Creature Comforts has gathered together her favorite bits and pieces and I'm pinning everything!

I've been fans of the Novogratz family since their book and I loved them on their Bravo show. They have a new collection with CB2, not gonna lie, I'm excited for that. Here's an interview they just did with Apartment Therapy today.

I heart interior stylist Sibella Court and I cannot wait to get my hands on her new book, Life of a Bowerbird (which just came out today). Check out the lovely review she got from Holly at Decor8.

Just because we just bought an oriental rug recently does not mean we're not always in the hunt for new carpets. So, I'm dying to win $500 towards eSaleRugs on Little Green Notebook. You have until midnight tonight to enter! If you win, will you split it with me? Pretty please? (I was the 999th comment on the post, think it will bring me luck?)

Ok, I promise I won't let it go that long again without posting! For my sanity as well as yours.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Food:

Growing up, my grandparents raised chickens and the feeling of anticipation as my adolescent self peered into the little nesting boxes for eggs with my grandfather is something I'll never forget. We eat a lot of eggs in our household, and this chicken fantasy I have of raising our own will just have to wait until we don't live in Manhattan. Until then, I'll live vicariously through Sarah at The Yellow House who gathers beautiful little pastel-colored eggs from her chickens every day. She also shares a recipe for a fried egg in sizzling vinegar adapted from a Deborah Madison recipe that I'm itching to try out.

Ok I've never tried to make my own gnocchi, but when it comes to eating it, that's another story. This post by Beth at local milk actually makes homemade gnocchi seem possible (plus there is pancetta and fresh figs too). She says gnocchi is not that hard, and I might just believe her. Plus it's made with sweet potatoes, seasonally appropriate and makes for delicious looking orange nuggets.

Here is a perfect use for the bags and bags of apples we have cluttering our kitchen counter: vanilla bourbon caramel apples from the ridiculously talented Jessica at How Sweet It Is.

Make sure you congratulate Irish chef, photographer, and cookbook author Donal Skehan on his new gig as a judge on Junior MasterChef UK. He's an incredibly accomplished young chef and author at only 25 years old, and I'm looking forward to streaming episodes of Junior MasterChef later this year.

Interior design:

Jenny at Little Green Notebook recently dealt with a scary situation where she had to be hospitalized for several days with tetanus! Contracting the tetanus virus is pretty serious (potentially deadly) and she shares how it happened (she scraped her arm on some wire fencing) and reminds us that we should keep up to date on those tetanus vaccines (every 10 years). Apparently she'll feel flu-like symptoms for up to a year which I'm sure won't be fun.

Caitlin at Roost has created a beautiful new space to fuel her creativity and I'm totally in love with this inspiring room. Packed full of vintage finds and chic furniture, you have to check it out. The wallpaper alone is to die for.

Swooning over these gorgeous wool blankets created with seawater by sheep farmer and artist Nanne Kennedy in Maine. Perfect to curl up on the couch with this Autumn and Winter. Found on Remodelista.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love the rain. Like truly, madly, deeply love the rain. And now thanks to my sister in Cambodia, I can listen to that soothing sound all day long via RainyMood.com. The site streams the sound of rain paired with music (you can choose to have music on or off). I played it in my office today, and did find that the constant rain falling really helped me relax. Thanks, Genevieve!

And finally, on Monday I got to witness my good friend Luisa Weiss of the popular food blog, The Wednesday Chef, do a reading from her new book, My Berlin Kitchen at Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn. To say I was excited would be an understatement. I had the pleasure of being her colleague when she was the cookbook editor at the publishing house where I still work. She took a huge leap of faith two years ago and left her job to move to Berlin where she now lives with her husband and baby son. Watching her read from her book was a little bit overwhelming and I definitely didn't have dry eyes for the whole thing. It was a bit surreal to see my friend standing in front of a crowd reading from her book. But in a way, not surprising at all because she has an incredible talent. I hope you guys all pick up a copy of My Berlin Kitchen pronto.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Those gloriously green images above are from Applewood Farms in Warwick, NY, where the trees were practically groaning with the weight of juicy apples. And we relieved them of two very very heavy bags of apples. Probably more than we needed. We're going to be eating apple pie for a very, very long time. I couldn't be happier about that.

It's time to break out the crock pot and every autumn I swear I'm going to use it more. Well, this recipe for turkey meatballs with quinoa from Jessica at How Sweet it Is will help get me into the crock pot groove.

Fashion/style:

Dying over this Bill Murray coloring book on Design Milk. Titled Thrill Murray, it's based on all of the different characters the actor has played over the years. Genius!

Love these kiddo hair tips on Cup of Jo today. Kind of hard to get a 3 year old to sit still to put her hair in top knots, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Have you guys ever used Blurb? They help you create photo books and they've recently extended their services to Instagram shots. Head to I Heart Organizing to take advantage of Jen's insane offer: for the next 72 hours you can go to Blurb's site and create an instagram memory book for free! Just enter INSTAHEART at checkout and the book is free. This is my project for tomorrow.Interior design:

I love seeing apartments with a younger touch. On Apartment Therapy today there was a feature on two Southern girls and their decoration of a 600 square foot apartment in the West Village. It's the perfect mixture of youth and elegance (with a quirky sense of humor).

In ancient times (or perhaps still today) the apple was a powerful pagan symbol and was used in Samhain rituals. It's not hard at all to image this magical tree serving as the gateway to another world.